VietNamNet Bridge – Professor Vo Tong Xuan rejected the risk that has been warned recently by the local media--that Chinese traders may control the market for some agricultural products, for example sweet potato.

 

Chinese lease Vietnamese land to grow sweet potatoes

 

Prof. Vo Tong Xuan at VietNamNet's office.

Many local newspapers recently published a lot of reportages about Chinese traders’ investment in growing sweet potato in the southern province of Vinh Long. They warned of the threat that through systematic investment in growing, collecting and exporting sweet potato, Chinese traders may control this sweet potato area.

 

VietNamNet interviewed Prof. Vo Tong Xuan, who assumed many important positions in organizations, national and international projects on agriculture.

 

Do you know that Chinese traders are robustly investing in planting sweet potatoes in Vinh Long province?

 

I know that Chinese traders hire land in Binh Minh and Binh Tan districts – which are famous for good sweet potatoes – in Vinh Long district and hire locals to plant sweet potato to export.

 

Could this move lead to Chinese traders’ control of this area?

 

This is a very good opportunity for Vinh Long’s farmers to have more jobs and outlets for their products. We cannot say that Chinese traders “control the material crop area” because Vietnamese traders do not need to buy sweet potato and do not take care of Vinh Long’s farmers like Chinese trader do.

 

The biggest difficulty for farmers in Vinh Long and our farmers in general is the market for their products. Farmers are capable to produce agricultural products up to any standard but when they sell their products, they often have to sell their products at prices fixed by traders. Farmers mainly grow rice though they know that rice does not bring out high profit. They want to diverse their products but they do not know how to sell them and at which prices.

 

Many people said that during the sweet potato harvest season, Vinh Long’s farmers may be forced to sell under prices because they depend on the Chinese market. How can we deal with this pressure?

 

This is the role and responsibility of local governments. They have to protect their farmers and manage traders operating in their areas. They must know the identity of traders and instruct farmers to ask traders to sign contracts of responsibility and to negotiate the price at the beginning. Local authorities cannot be irresponsible and let traders do as they like.

 

As an expert of agriculture, what do you think about changing from rice to sweet potato in Vinh Long?

 

Planting sweet potatoes in the land for rice is a sustainable cultivation system and a good trend for diversifying crops. The facts show that the productivity of rice planted after harvesting sweet potato is higher than planting rice only.

 

Besides Vinh Long, Chinese traders have invested in planting some kinds of crops in other provinces. How this influences the balance of the market for agricultural products?

 

We should thank Chinese traders for purchasing agricultural products for our farmers while Vietnamese traders are impassive and cannot do much to assist our farmers. They ought to have taken initiative to learning the demands of the international and Chinese markets and cooperate with our farmers to produce and export the goods that meet the market demands.

 

Could you make clear about the current way of cooperation with farmers of local businesses?

 

Not many Vietnamese firms directly meet with farmers to discuss and cooperate with them to produce agricultural products. They often use traders to collect goods, particularly rice. As a result, we do not have strong brands for agricultural products.

 

Farmers, businesses and the country suffer losses because of this. I could say that Vietnamese farmers are poor because our country does not have businesses that know how to do business.

 

Dr. Vo Tong Xuan is the President of An Giang University and Professor of Agronomy. He is also Director of the Mekong Delta Farming Systems Research and Development Institute (1983-present).

 

He is a member of numerous associations and networks within Vietnam, including the Vietnamese Association of Agronomy, Vietnamese Association of Soil Science, Vietnam Agricultural Economics Network, Vietnam Farming Systems Network, Asian Farming Systems Association, and the International Farming Systems R&E Association.

 

He is the Coordinator of the Vietnam Farming Systems R&D Network (1991 to date) and also the Project Leader of the IDRC-supported project on Community-based natural resource management (1997 to date). Within Vietnam he is also a member of the National Advisory Council on Science and Technology (1997 to date), the National Editorial Board of Vietnam Encyclopedia (1994 to date), the National Board on Ho Chi Minh Prize and State Prize (1995 to date), and of the Advisory Council of Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (1990 to date). Internationally, he is a member of the Steering Committee, Vietnam-Holland Research Program on Rural Development (MOSTE, Hanoi) (1994 to date), an Advisory member, Institute of Governance, Canada (09/1995 to date), and Chairman of the Southeast Asian NGO Liaison Committee on Food Security and Trade (01/1996 to date). Additionally, he is a member of the Editorial Board, Saigon Economics Weekly Magazine, a member of the Board of Governors of the Asian Institute of Management in Manila, Philippines (1997-to date), and a member of the Policy Advisory Council, Australian Center for International Agricultural Research (1997-to date).

 

Since the late 1960s, Dr. Vo Tong Xuan has held previous positions as a Research Fellow at the International Rice Research Institute, Los Banos, Philippines, Chairman of the Dept. of Bio-Agronomy, Asst. Dean of Agriculture, University of Cantho, Vietnam and Consulting Director of Research and Development at the Thanh Son-CIBA GEIGY Agrochemicals Company, Saigon, Vietnam. He has also served as a project leader or consultant on numerous projects with the Mekong Committee-USAID, NUFFIC, the International Mekong Committee, UNDP/FAO, NEDECO/UNDP, FAO/RAPA, IFAD, DANIDA, OECD, and IDRC.

 

He has also been a Visiting Scholar at the Harvard Institute for International Development, Harvard University and a Visiting Professor at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University.

 

Prof., Dr. Xuan was granted the Labor Hero and the People’s Teacher tittles by the Vietnamese state.

 

Quoc Quang